My Life in Ruins (2009)

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The film was really funny. In keeping with Nia's focus on being Greek and single, this movie has an added angle that her other films don't -- here she's an educated woman. WHY she's in Greece isn't clear, but she ends up taking a job as a tour guide for a female business owner who doesn't like her and plots with other agents to get her to quit. How Nia doesn't see this and why she stays are obvious questions, but she's soon thrown off kilter by each of the characters riding the tour bus with her. (No Spoilers!)There's a little love and a little drama. Sometimes Nia herself seems to be trying too hard, but that's actually in keeping with her character. She perhaps needs to stop throwing Ian Gomez into ALL her movies. It was cute in the first My Big Fat Greek Wedding and necessary in the sequel, but he doesn't really add anything special to the other movies.... It's probably nice to have one's husband on payroll, but it's probably healthier to let him get his own acting gigs.

This movie once again sends the message that women can't be happy by themselves. Yes the "poor" tour guide is rescued by a Mills and Boonesque "hero" with matching long hair and muscles, but then he is made to change into a clean shaven suit wearing professional (i.e. the Hollywood "ideal" marrying man). As others have mentioned the stereotypes are over the top and do not stop existing despite the emotional change in the tour guide (despite what different people have said)- for example, the Foster's drinking Australians never stop using the rhyming slang and give a Foster's to the sick guy in hospital near the end (as if he would want it when real Australians find it disgusting). I think the producers of this film just watched other films containing such stereotypes and thought that was how these people really are. I was surprised not to see a police officer eating donuts and a token Japanese person taking pictures of everything. Lazy formulaic film made by people just wanting to make a quick buck off the back of Big Fat Greek Wedding. Good to see it didn't work.

This is a good movie to pass some good time. Not like other comedy movie with few laugh and boring the rest. Yes this is not a great movie. But I must admit the movie was much better than I expected.The story was about a tour guide in Greece who doesn't have a great reputation of her work.She always gets the average box checked as there are no lesser grade. In the movie she learns about others life as well as her own. The thing I like about the movie is that they didn't try to do much and what they wanted to do did in a good way. My advice would be not to expect too much and just relax and enjoy.If you like a family movie with some laughs you would probably enjoy it too.

Overall this is pleasant to watch and more often funny than not. There are laugh out loud moments every few minutes or so. Some of the jokes in between are a little strained and fall flat but generally it is consistent from beginning to end. A little dialog could have been tightened and some scenes were a bit contrived like the way the leads started to become attracted to each other.The lead actress Nia is pleasant - she isn't corny as could be the case given some silly lines. Her romantic lead Alexis is just a bit on the plain side for a romantic comedy.Scenery is great.The supporting cast eg Dreyfus is good but a bit under utilised they don't have too many good lines after a while.